A Snowy Interlude
by Tengu Queen
Summary: A semisequal to A Lullaby Sang in Moonlight, but I don't think you have to read it to get this story. After a long mission, Sasuke his finally returning home. But, things are curiously still at the Uchiha Mansion? Could it be an ambush? SasuSaku


A Snowy Interlude

Sasuke Uchiha walked slowly through the snow-covered streets of Konoha, readjusting the small pack slung around his left shoulder.

The latest mission had been a simple one: make sure Lord Tokogawa toed the line and didn't attempt to break regulations concerning the medicinal drugs passing through his lands. After all, the black market was always clamoring for particular elixirs, especially those that relieved pain. Everything went smoothly however, no upsets, no surprises, and for that Sasuke was grateful.

What he was not grateful for was the fact that this particular mission had taken four months to complete- the longest mission Sasuke had been on in years. In fact, he did not recall being on such an assignment since the birth of Yuriko, his first child. Before his daughter had been born, the length would not have bothered him; but now, when Tsunade had assigned him the mission, Sasuke had felt a slight twinge in his gut. Almost like…a dread of having to be gone that long. That feeling had taken him by complete surprise, as had the amount of strength he had been forced to use in order to walk out the front door of the Uchiha Mansion, leaving his wife and two children behind. The next four months had been excruciating, passing at a snail's pace. Never had Sasuke wanted to be home so badly in his entire life. Then again, the Uchiha mused, he had never had such a home to go back to. Never before had there been such a happy period in the man's life, for all of his childhood memories of happiness had been marred by blood, and all those occurring afterwards were tainted by revenge. But now, now that he was free of his brother's hold, Sasuke Uchiha could admit that he was truly happy.

The gates of the Uchiha Mansion rose before the man, and relief swept over him, though it did not show on his stoic face. Quietly he opened one of the steel doors, and stepped through. Then, Sasuke froze. Not a sound could be heard from the building before him.

Something was not right.

Normally, when he had come home on previous nights, there would be noise of some sort, be it Sakura's humming or Yuriko's laughter. Now, there was only silence, a silence that stretched over the snowy courtyard that Sasuke stood in. The man slowly put down his pack, and stepped forward wearily, hand drifting towards his kunai pouch.

"Now!" a voice yelled from behind a snow bank. Turning towards the sound, Sasuke barely managed to avoid the triplet of spherical shapes that flew past his head.

He quickly dropped to a crouch, glancing behind him to see what the projectiles had been.

Snowballs.

Three splattered snowballs lay in small craters behind him.

The Uchiha smirked. Thought they could ambush **him**?

"Fire at will!" the same voice shouted, in its melodic female tone, and three white objects were again flung at his dark figure, an easy target in the sea of white perfection that surrounded him.

A few simple hand motions were all required to make his escape, and a poor piece of wood was caught in the barrage of snow, falling to the ground with a small thud.

Silence again filled the courtyard. Moments passed, but something finally broke the stillness. A black cap popped up over a particularly large snow bank, strands of dark pink hair peeking out from beneath it. A pale forehead, and then a pair of black eyes followed the cap, the eyes glancing nervously about the area. Slowly a small form clambered over the snow, ignoring the girlish voice that hissed, "Hikaru! Get back here!"

The young boy walked to where his father had stood only moments before, and he quickly assessed his surroundings.

"Where'd he go?" was the soft question that escaped his lips.

"I'm right here," spoke a dark voice behind him, and Hikaru felt himself encased in warm arms before he was whisked away into one of the nearby trees that populated the courtyard. Giggling, the boy turned around to face his father, black locking with black as the two gazed at each other.

"Now, you have two choices," Sasuke whispered calmly to his son, face completely blank and serious. "You can join me in fighting against your mother and Yuriko, or I can toss you into the nearest snow drift."

"I'll join you!" the young boy rapidly squeaked.

The older man smirked evilly. "Good."

**-Behind the Snow bank-**

Sakura turned to her pale daughter, who was creating another snowball with her glove-encased hands.

"He's got Hikaru," Yuriko whispered, glancing at the tree her father and little brother now resided in.

"And we can't attack the tree, or he'll knock the snow from the branches down on us…" mused Sakura, her own hands fondling a particularly large sphere of snow. "The branches make it hard to aim at him too…"

"So what are we going to do?"

Sakura grinned at her daughter, and tossed the ball experimentally between her hands. "We're going higher."

**-Back in the tree-**

Sasuke skeptically watched the snow bank his wife and child hid behind, Hikaru safely lodged behind him on the branch.

For the past few minutes there had been no projectiles, nor sight of pink or black. Sasuke frowned. After nearly nine years of marriage, and nine years before that of tenuous friendship, he could tell when Sakura was plotting.

A sudden thud caught his attention, and Sasuke's coal eyes were drawn to his right. There rested the remains of a large snowball.

Cursing himself for following the distraction, the man quickly refocused back in the main courtyard, and his eyes widened as he saw his wife toss their daughter at the tree. Yuriko dexterously twisted in the air, landing a few feet above the father and son. Then, with a childish grin on her face, she began to upset the branches, which in turn upset their large loads of snow.

With a grunt, Sasuke grabbed Hikaru and jumped out of the tree, mere seconds before they would have been buried in the white fluffy substance. When they hit the ground, Sasuke pushed Hikaru to run for cover, while he dodged the snowballs his wife had been waiting to fire at him.

Yuriko sped off after her brother, and managed to tackle him to the snow, in a fit of soft giggles.

"Eat snow looser!" she cried, shoving a fistful of snow into the boy's face. Hikaru snarled, and started to grapple with his sister. The two continued to roll in the snow as their parents fought only a few feet away from them.

Sasuke continued to deftly dodge Sakura's attacks, and scooped an amount of snow into his hand, creating a snowball of his own and launching it at her. Sakura managed to avoid this first attack, but not the second.

White slowly melted down the side of her head, as the woman stared at her husband in shock. Then, the pale skin of her face began to turn red as she shouted, "Sasuke Uchiha!"

Smirking, Sasuke continued his barrage of snowballs, all of which his wife, now irritated, managed to avoid. A few hand motions, and the pink-haired woman had disappeared. The Uchiha glanced about him, waiting for an attack, but he was caught off guard when he was tackled from above by a blurry figure of pink and red. The two rolled on the ground for a while, strangely mirroring their children, before Sakura stood—erm—**sat** victoriously upon her prey.

Then, with a triumphant grin, she pecked her husband on the lips. "Welcome home!"

Sasuke stared up at the woman, and took in her countenance: face flushed, hair dripping with melting snow, aquamarine eyes aglow with excitement and love. Then he glanced over at his children, who had since stopped wrestling, and were instead sitting against each other.

Hikaru's cap had fallen off, exposing his mop of dark pink hair, which usually had him at the butt of his peers' jokes. Sasuke knew that these didn't bother his six-year-old son any longer, however. He had come to be proud of his hair. Hikaru's large black eyes glittered tiredly, as his panting breath filled the air with soft white smoke.

Yuriko was practically glowing with energy. Her black hair had grown to the middle of her back now, and her skin was still tanned ever so slightly from the past summer. She smiled at her tired brother, punching him playfully on the arm. Even from here, Sasuke could hear her whisper, "Looser."

Looking back up at his wife, the head of the Uchiha clan smirked, pulling her down into another light kiss.

"I…." he began.

"Yes?" Curiosity colored Sakura's face.

"I…. missed this."

A bright smile lit the woman's face. "And I missed you Sasuke-kun."

The old prefix set a small smile on Sasuke's face, so tiny that it could almost have been considered a smirk. But his wife knew better, and she kissed his forehead.

"We'd better get inside…" Sasuke commented, shifting up onto his elbows.

"Yep," Sakura agreed, before getting a mischievous glint in her eyes. "But Sasuke…"

"What?"

"I win."

And with that, the pink-haired woman grabbed a handful of snow, and stuffed it down her husband's shirt. Then, with a childish grin, she ran inside the house, the children running in—giggling—after her.

Sasuke just stared in shock at the space Sakura had previously occupied—until drops of melted snow began to run down his sculpted chest, brushing against two particularly sensitive buds. With a hiss of breath Sasuke quickly pulled up his shirt and brushed the remainder of the half melted substance out of his shirt.

Glaring at the door, Sasuke went back to his pack, picked it up, and walked purposefully towards his home.

Sakura. Would. Pay.

Nine months later, the Uchiha family had a new daughter: Yuki.

--------------------------------Fin--------------------------------------------

A/N: Just so you know, the translation of Yuki is 'Snow'. I know that Sasuke may have been a little out of character, but I figure that eight years of a loving family could change a man, at least slightly. Please review, and tell me what you think!


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